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Tom Hanks Had the Best Ten Year Run of Any Actor Ever

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Tom Hanks has had an unbelievably successful career. Many people (including myself) consider him the greatest actor of all time, and deservingly so. He has made hit movie after hit movie AND brought coronavirus attention to the forefront of people’s minds (not intentionally, but nonetheless!). Anyway, I think it’s fair to say that Hanks’s stretch of movies from 1992-2002 was the greatest ten-year run of any actor ever, in the history of the universe. Let’s take a looks at what Tommy put out over that time:

  • 1992: A League of Their Own
  • 1993: Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia
  • 1994: Forrest Gump
  • 1995: Apollo 13, Toy Story
  • 1996: That Thing You Do!
  • 1997: (Took a well-needed break)
  • 1998: Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail
  • 1999: The Green Mile, Toy Story 2
  • 2000: Cast Away
  • 2001: Band of Brothers (Executive producer)
  • 2002: Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can

Unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life, or are younger than twelve years old, you’ve heard of, if not watched, at least 80% of the movies above. He made 14 movies in ten years, four of which are arguably the best movies of all time in their respective genres.

Saving Private Ryan is probably the greatest war movie ever, and a top ten movie of all time. I could be considered biased because it’s personally my favorite movie ever, but regardless, you can’t deny that it’s about as close to perfection as a war movie can get. It’s also worth mentioning that while he didn’t star in Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks, along with Steven Spielberg gave us one of the best miniseries’ of all time. I recently made it the #1 TV show to watch during the COVID-19 quarantine, and deservingly so. It’s not a surprise that just a few years after making arguably the best WWII movie of all time, Hanks gave us the best WWII TV show of all time – the guy just loves those stories. Legend.

Toy Story is was the world’s introduction to the animation powerhouse known as Pixar. Pixar has missed on a few movies, but for the most part, they only put out classics. Toy Story should go down as one of, if not the best animated movie of all time, and the fact that if propelled Pixar to the forefront of the animated movie world makes it all the more impressive.

The first time Tom Hanks teamed up with Meg Ryan was in 1990’s Joe Versus the Volcano, which is the ultimate movie to watch on shrooms. Actually, it was so weird when I watched it sober that I think I’d be way too freaked out if I watched it high. Regardless, if you want to watch something that is truly unique I recommend watching it. 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, however, was a much more traditional and marketable movie for Hanks and Ryan. It’s also one of the best rom-coms ever made. As someone who loves The Bachelor, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I am a huge fan of rom coms, and Sleepless in Seattle is a top-tier choice.

As far as sports movies go, specifically baseball movies, A League of Their Own is one of the best of all time. It tells the story of the first female professional baseball league amidst the backdrop of WWII (inarguably one of Hanks’s favorite era’s). It also gave us the classic line “There’s no crying in baseball!” delivered by Hanks himself. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, and I don’t think anyone else could’ve played the role of Jimmy Dugan better than Tom Hanks.

And I couldn’t write a Tom Hanks blog without mentioning Forrest Gump. It’s absurd to me that there are a group of people out there who actually think this is a bad movie. I understand that the movie’s storyline is absurd in its own right, but it’s a FANTASY. In the real world it would be nearly impossible for one man (with an IQ of 75) to make it out of rural Alabama to be a college football star, war hero, ping pong phenom, millionaire restaurateur, and cross country (literally) runner, but that’s the film’s charm! I’ll admit the Jenny storyline can get frustrating, but the rest of the movie overwhelmingly redeems the plot. I’m sure the same people that hate Forrest Gump also hate Inglorious Bastards and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood because those movies took actual historical events and modified the details to change the course of history. Idiots. Love you Hanx!

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Sports

The Sports World Has Given Coronavirus the Attention It so Desperately Wanted

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March 11, 2020 will officially go down as one of the worst days in sports history, courtesy of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Here’s a quick rundown of what went down:

And just for good measure, of course they had to throw my favorite actor Tom Hanks into the mix.

I never thought I’d say this, but it’s finally time we show COVID-19 some respect. March Madness is by far the biggest sporting event of the spring, and a major money machine for the NCAA. So the fact that no spectators will be allowed in the games is a major blow and will cause serious monetary implications. What’s even more scary is that this could get worse…they could very well end up canceling the entire tournament amid fear that players could catch the virus whenever and wherever.

While it’s unlikely that the entire NBA season will come to an end, it is postponed until further notice after Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. It’s not clear how long this hiatus will last, but it would be devastating if the entire rest of the season was cancelled because of this. I couldn’t imagine being in the front office of a title-contending team like the Lakers, Bucks, or Clippers right now knowing that all the offseason moves they made might’ve been for nothing.

The Ivy League took it one step further by already canceling the remainder of the season for all spring sports. To have trained tirelessly all offseason just to have the rest your season cancelled just as it’s getting started is truly devastating from a college athlete’s perspective. Not to undersell the impact this has on NBA players and other professional athletes, but those guys have already made it. For most college athletes, they get four years to play the sport they love before being unleashed on the real world. I truly couldn’t feel worse for all the seniors in the Ivy League who will miss out on the rest of their season because of it. You might be saying “it’s just sports” or “those Ivy League kids are going to be rich anyway” but it’s so much more of that. If you’re in that group, I apologize if this comes off as pretentious, but unless you played sports in college (which I did) you wouldn’t get it. It takes such a high level of commitment and dedication to play sports in college and especially the Division 1 level.

I haven’t even mentioned the implications this could have (and is already having) on the NHL, MLB, PGA Tour, and the Olympics. The NHL is nearing the end of its season which means the playoffs could be affected, the PGA Tour has no plans to cancel any events, but as we near The Masters it’s something to keep in mind as a possibility, and there’s a good chance the MLB season could be delayed or have empty stadiums. However, in my mind the biggest question pertains to the status of the 2020 Summer Olympics due to it’s close proximity to China, where COVID-19 originated. What’s interesting, though, is that they have less confirmed cases and deaths than the U.S. The Olympics are by far the most important sporting event of the year in terms of global impact, so if they were to get delayed or canceled, it would be devastating.

Of course overall public health is the main concern and is the driving force behind the decisions these league commissioners and board members have been making, BUT I do think they have been premature and excessive. And yes, I can admit COVID-19 deserves respect while at the same time saying that the sporting cancelations are excessive. The following chart shows the death rate from COVID-19 as of 10 pm 3/10/20 via worldometer:

AGE
 DEATH RATE
confirmed cases		 DEATH RATE
all cases
80+ years old
21.9%
14.8%
70-79 years old
8.0%
60-69 years old
3.6%
50-59 years old
1.3%
40-49 years old
0.4%
30-39 years old
0.2%
20-29 years old
0.2%
10-19 years old
0.2%
0-9 years old
no fatalities

As you can see, the elderly are most at risk from dying from the virus which isn’t surprising since underlying health conditions such as emphysema, hypertension, diabetes, etc. are more common. And from what I’m gathering, people in good health like Tom Hanks, Rudy Gobert, and college/pro athletes experience mild symptoms. I’m really not sure what happens next, but all I can do is remain optimistic that this thing doesn’t get even more out of hand than it already is (unlikely). And thanks to the news and internet, the hysteria is growing more rampant everyday. The next most important thing COVID-19 could take away from me is the Eagles concert scheduled in April. If I am denied a live rendition of Hotel California by Don Henley 2020 will officially be the worst year in history.

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